Feet on the earth. Hands in the dirt. Heart wide open. Head in the clouds.

Oct 20 Minoux Wilder's Maple Spice Cake

Our baby Minoux Wilder turned two this Fall and words can't quite describe the love for this child. Born in the woods two years ago, she is such an absolute tender soul, an observer and a soft hearted two year old. She brings so much joy and peace and calm to our world and is such an incredible balance to Luella. People always say what a joy it will be to see your kids interact and play together and I couldn't agree more. It feels like watching magic unfold to see the girls interact and imagine and play together and even get through their differing opinions and come back to one another with hugs and kisses and Minoux wrapping both legs around Luella as she scoops her up. We love them both so much.

We had a beautiful, sunny day to celebrate with our friends and family and couldn't be more proud of who she is. We packed up the most basic gift bags for her friends with small friendly acorns and whistles and kitten ears. I love hosting parties and one of my favorite things is preparing all the food for everyone. I always stay up extra late, wake up extra early and always run out of time to shower or get ready. But so worth it for the cake and pumpkin soup. I've been into yogurt recipes... the ones they print on organic yogurts or you can find in their websites. They usually require much less sugar and aren't a ton of steps so I am able to focus on all the other food elements as well. So here's one of my favorite recipes that I've been into lately.

Ingredients

2 c flour

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

3 t cinnamon

1/2 t ground clove

1/2 t ground nutmeg

1/2 c butter

2/3 c brown sugar

1 c maple syrup

1 c Stonyfield Organic Low Fat Plain Yogurt

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine all dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices, in a large mixing bowl, and combine well. In separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Slowly pour in the maple syrup, followed by yogurt and then eggs. Sift dry ingredients into the liquid mixture, until fully incorporated. Pour into a 9'x13' baking pan or three round cake pans and bake for 35-40 minutes. Once baked, allow cake to cool. Take out of baking pans and wrap overnight if needed in order to frost on the day of serving! Frost in between each layer of cake and top with foraged flowers, edible plants or candles! There are so many incredible frostings that would pair well with his. I used cream cheese, almond milk, powdered sugar and a dash of maple syrup for the frosting and kind of eye-balled it all based on consistency, but you really can't go wrong with the frosting options here!